What happened to the blog? 508 Happened: Part 1

For reasons that are about to be explained the blog was out of commission over last semester. The second semester of USC's graduate film program is called 508. Now 508 is over and I will basically recap everything that happened over a series of posts. I will be able to do this thanks to my twitter feed reading like a history book of what I did.

Part 1: The Summer Before Faye
 
@TheScarletRebel:

Meeting McG, director of Terminator Salvation

14 Jun
  

We left off at a nice hike and finding the Cave of Life.  A few days later I met Bridget Moynahan and McG as part of the closing of the Youtube Institute Program that was being held at USC.  McG was very cool and actually talked to each of us who arrived early. Nobody does that! Bridget was super sweet as well. She wasn't there to be interviewed and was just there to support McG but was kind enough to talk to me anyway.

@TheScarletRebel

Chess Boxing is everything I thought it would be. #exhaustion #somuchblood

19 Jun
For those of you who don't know I started a Facebook group where people could challenge me to any experience or challenge they could think of. One I discovered myself while online at Cracked.com was Chess Boxing. Yes it is a real sport. It is quite big in Germany. It is exactly what it sound like.  11 rounds, alternating between chess and boxing. 4 minutes of chess, two minutes of boxing. Win by checkmate or knockout.  There is nothing else you need to know, you can watch the match in the video below.

Challenge 1: Chess Boxing


@TheScarletRebel

Going all Hermione Granger in Doheny Library. For real this time.

27 Jun It was great working with both of my trio mates over the summer before 508 began. (In 508 you work in assigned teams of three to make three films in 15 weeks.) I worked on Territory with Alana and was in a Critical Studies class with Drue Metz.  This class was taught by the infamous Drew Casper.  He is very intense as he goes into the history of film and he is very theatrical and animated.  He also assigns these huge papers that cover vasts amounts of film history.  I has to watch 7 Billy Wilder films outside fo the ones we watched in class and he also assigned several readings in books that were nat available to check out of the library.Turns out that of those 7 films I needed to watch the expansive USC film library had just 1.  So I watched that one and then on the morning of the day that paper was due (because the section of the library with those books is closed on the weekend) I went to the historic Doheny Library, down to the basement and pulled out stacks of books.  Anything written by Casper and wrote like a man possesed. I really looked like Hermione Granger because that library is like a castle and it looked like Hogwarts. And I was surrounded by books. And then everything I wrote was sourced by the books, not the internet. I found enough material in the books to cover up the fact that I was unable to see those extra films.  I spent the whole day on that paper and turned it in on time.  I think it is the paper I am most proud of in all my schooling years.


@TheScarletRebel:

I hereby commandeer this bathtub in the name of sound! #adventuresinfilmmaking

8 Jul
I got hired onto a feature film called Territory directed by the head of the USC Directing track and produced by the amazing Alana Waksman and Bernardo Duran, Jr.  I was the the sound mixer. We were in a hotel room and the only place sound could hide out without being seen by the cameras or mirrors was the bathtub.  We went to some really cool locations around LA including a toilet factory and some alleys full of the most amazing graffiti. I guess there isn't too much more to say about this now, it was just a great working on another feature.

Oh and yeah I died my hair red for the summer.

Up next, Part 2: 15 Minutes of Faye